June 29, 1999

Wiesner, David

4.11

2,457 ratings by Goodreads

ISBN 10: 0613067452 ISBN 13: 9780613067454

Publisher: Turtleback Books, 2001

The lively imagination of Caldecott medalist David Wiesner forecasts astounding goings-on for a Tuesday in the not too distant future -- an occurrence of gigantic vegetal proportions. "These witty, wonderfully imaginative pictures reward closer study. Hurray for Wiesner, and his grand sense of humor." -- Kirkus Reviews, pointer

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Review:

If you liked David Wiesner's surrealistic 1992 Caldecott Medalist Tuesday, then June 29, 1999 will send your spirits soaring like a frog on a flying lily pad. This wacky Wiesner creation chronicles an astonishing cross-country phenomenon on 29 June, 1999. About a month earlier, on 11 May, 1999, young Holly Evans launches vegetable seedlings into the sky from her home in Ho-ho-kus, New Jersey--on seedflats with Acme weather balloons. She expects the plants to stay aloft for a few weeks, allowing her to study the effects of extraterrestrial conditions on their growth and development.

On 29 June, 1999, curious things start to happen all over America. A hiker in Montana finds giant turnips in the Rocky Mountains. "Cucumbers circle Kalamazoo. Lima beans loom over Levittown. Artichokes advance on Anchorage". TV news channels announce that arugula has covered Ashtabula, which puzzles Holly, because arugula is not part of her experiment. In fact, she is forced to conclude that none of the enlarged specimen sightings are a result of her initial seedling launch. Where did the giant vegetables come from then? Wiesner waits until the last pages to deliver the punchline. Throughout the book, his visual humour interplays perfectly with the sophisticated, though minimal text: a Mount Rushmore-like scene reveals the faces of Reagan, Bush, Nixon, and Carter carved out of giant potatoes with the caption "Potatoland is wisely abandoned". This beautifully composed ode to absurdity makes us all wish we really could see parsnips over Providence.

Prizes won by this book include: 1993 ALA Notable Book, School Library Journal Best Books of 1992, Horn Book's Outstanding Books of the Year, Publishers Weekly 50 Best Books of 1992 and New York Times Notable Books of the Year 1992. (Age 5 and older) --Karin Snelson

Review:

"Wiesner's dry humor, irony and artistic wizardry have been masterfully marshalled into a visual and literary feast. Kids will relish rolling amusingly alliterative phrases off their tongues almost as much as they delight in these wryly rendered paintings. . . . Spectacular to look at, great fun to read-it is, in sum, executed with consummate skill."

"As in the mysterious goings-on of that particular Tuesday not long ago, Wiesner again takes off on a flight of fantasy, this time set in the not-too-distant future. This sci-fi adventure begins with Holly Evans, a visionary third grader who launches some seedlings into the iconosphere as part of a science experiment, And so the fun begins . . ."

"These witty, wonderfully imaginative pictures reward closer study. Hurray for Wiesner, and his grand sense of humor." Kirkus Reviews with Pointers

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